Seeking Pleasure And Agression Is Part Of

substitutes for the real thing, instinctual happiness. But, they are not a

substitute for Hayy, they are his core source of happiness. So he did not stay

with Salaman and create for himself substitute kind of pleasure, instead, he

left civilization for its seekers and he went back in search for his higher

degree of happiness. On the otherhand, civilization for us, becomes the

constant attempt to divert the individual from sexual gratification into

socially productive and acceptable activities. We on the contrary, do not have

any place to escape to, so we surrender to the quest of our civilization, and we

use the intellectual replacements for the lost sexual happiness.

On the otherhand of this discussion, comes the other concept of Freud

which is human aggression, and once more we will relate this core human instinct

to civilization and its impacts on human aggression. The Island of Animals

question the aggression that lies deep in human nature. It also impasses the

role of civilization in creating such violence within our behavior. As we know,

surpassingly, civilization came to modify our aggressive nature, but it failed

to do so because of too many restrictions, such as social pressure that govern

us and particularly governs our behavior (lecture). It is an irony to say that

the people who landed on the Island are civilized men, ?They were…men of every

sort of profession, trade and craft…..doctors and lawyers and builders…..?

(5), and according to Freud, social order is one of the requirements for

civilization, but the first thing that those civilized men did is something

completely against civilization. It is once you feel that no one is watching

you begin doing what brings you happiness. In other words, aggression is

another human instinct that brings us joy and happiness. But, because

civilization refuses any act of violence, it oppresses this need of aggression

deep in our consciousness, and thus the first thing we do when no body is

watching is anything that civilization refuses us to do. In this case,

civilization oppressed the aggression instinct in the men who landed on the

Island. This sense of aggression was clearly felt by the animals who protested

and asked for help, as any one who is being used aggressively. The point that

The Island of Animals emphasized is that aggression is purely a human instinct,

as there were men from all kinds of religion, ?These men came from different

parts of t world and were from different religions; they included Muslims,

Christians, jews and others.?(5). This means that where ever you came from,

whatever your culture is, you are aggressive by nature. From that sense

civilization steps in with a beneficial propose, as it tame the human nature.

But, civilization creates human source of worry and distress, and also oppresses

our basic human instinct. As we looked for substitute for our sexual desire, we

also sacrifice our aggressive nature for the benefit of civilization.

Finally, it is clear that civilization has its discontents, but how can

we solve such a problem. It is impossible to look back and say that the

permissive man was happier because he had no restrictions. We can never go back,

or even look to the permissive world. Once we reach a higher degree of

civilization we tend to look and analyze the next step. We ignore our human

desires for better standards of living, we sacrifice them with what we see

better. Or even because we know that what we want from sexual and aggressive

desires is impossible to happen, then we subconsciously live in the discontents

of the civilization and pretend to be happy with the substitutes we created for

ourselves. Hayy and The Island of Animals are two stories that question the

roll of civilization in our life, each looked at civilization from different

perspective. At the sametime, what we all see refutable is the solution that

Hayy choose for himself, because no one can escape the discontents that he

originally created. Hayy was a special case because he was raised away from

civilization, so he didn’t live in it. The question that we have to ask

ourselves is, what was Hayy going to do if he was exposed to a sexual experience

on the land of Absal and Salaman? was he going to escape from civilization like

he did, or was he going to live in civilization and accept its discontent.